The latest New York Police Department (NYPD) campaign faced criticism Monday, with an ad executive saying that their latest recruitment efforts were “trivializing the job.”
Ad executive Ellis Verdi described the NYPD’s campaign as “disappointing,” reports the New York Daily News.
“The job of being a police officer requires tremendous passion, and this advertising falls flat. This is like a fashion campaign. It trivializes the job,” Verdi, the founder of the DeVito/Verdi ad agency, declared.
The NYPD launched a new campaign that emphasizes compassion, courage and respect as they try to recruit new officers. The latest campaign ad features young people wearing shirts emblazoned with slogans like “All About Respect,” “Service Oriented,” and “Honesty is my thing.” (RELATED: NYPD Stresses ‘Compassionate’ Policing As It Recruits New Officers)
The campaign photos also feature the slogan, “It’s you we want. Bring who you are.”
The department is searching for more diverse and sensitive officers; they are also looking to recruit millennials, as they “have a different way of looking at things,” according to NYPD Assistant Chief Kim Royster.
“They are very visual, so for the purpose of engaging them, we’ve taken this campaign in a very inclusive way,” Royster said.
The campaign doesn’t properly convince millennials to become police officers, according to Verdi.
“It’s marketing speak without real understanding. The real way to get to a person of a young age and appeal to his interest in being a cop is to tell them the unbelievable good they can do,” Verdi explained.
Verdi said he would like the words, “It’s a big city — we could use some help,” as a recruiting slogan.
Police Commissioner James O’Neill disagreed with the censure, saying that a person can both fight crime and care about the community.
“There is no dichotomy between being someone who cares about community and being a crime fighter. It’s one and the same,” O’Neill stated.
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